Arrangement Room-1. A room in the funeral home set aside for funeral home staff and the bereaved family to make funeral arrangements

Attorney in Fact-1. Any person granted the power of attorney

Autopsy-1. A medical examination of a dead body to find the cause of death or the character and site of the disease of which the person died2. The Post-mortem examination of a human body, especially to determine the cause of death for medical or legal purposes.Syn: post-mortem, necropsy

Beneficiary-1. Any recipient of the proceeds of a will or insurance policy

Bequest-1. Any gift of property made in a will

Bereaved-1. Friends and relatives of the deceased2. When the loss is that of a beloved person by death3. To leave desolate or saddened through loss (Origin- OE bereafian)

Bereavement-1. The loss of a relative or friend by death2. Act of bereaving3. An afflictive loss as by deathSyn: loss, deprivation, grief, sorrow, heartache, mourning

Bier-1. A framework for carrying a corpse to the grave; a coffin

Burial-1. The act of putting a dead body in a grave, in a tomb, or in the sea; burying; funeral: “The sailor was given the burial at sea.”2. The burying of a dead body3. A place of burial; a grave (now used chiefly by anthropologists and archaeologists): “the great burials at Ur, the Sutton Hoo burial excavated near Ipswich (England) 1939.” (OE- byrgels tomb)SYN: Tomb, interment, inhumation, funeral, entombment, sepulture, last rites, *deep six

Burial Permit-1. Required by some states for human remains to be buried or cremated. Usually acquired by the mortuary or crematory, it is not required for the scattering of cremated ashes.

Burier-1. One who or that which buries

Calvary-1. Sculptural depiction of the crucifixion in monument form2. A statutory group representing the Crucifixion, usually life-size and placed in the open on a hill. But sometimes smaller and in a chapel3. A sculptured representation of the Crucifixion, usually erected in the open air

Calvary Cross-1. Heraldry: A Cross atop three steps

Casket-1. A casket is any container designed for holding human remains. It may be made of wood, metal or fiberglass. They are seldom called "coffins' in the funeral industry

Catacombs-1. Underground vaults2. An underground gallery forming a burial place, especially a network of such galleries with recesses in which to place the dead3. A long underground gallery with excavations in its sides for tombs or in which human bones are stacked or piled (Origin- Latin/Greek)

Catafalque-1. The stand on which the casket rests while in state and during the funeral service

Cemetery-1. A place for burying the dead; graveyard2. A place for the burial of the dead; formerly, a churchyard or a catacomb; now usually, a large park like enclosure, laid out and kept for purposes of intermentSyn: Graveyard, necropolis, memorial grounds, burial ground, churchyard, Golgotha, *boneyard, * city of the dead.(Origin- Greek: burial place, sleeping room, lull to sleep)

Cenotaph-1. Empty tomb, marker for one whose remains are elsewhere2. A monument erected in memory of a person who is buried elsewhere3. An empty tomb4. A monument erected to the dead but not containing the remains(Origin- Latin/Greek)

Cinerarium-1. Urn vault2. A place for keeping the ashes of cremated bodies3. Funerary urn4. A niche in a tomb or other place for an urn containing the ashes of a cremated body (Origin- Latin)

Cineration-1. The reduction to ashes by burning (Origin- Latin/English)

Codicil-1. An amendment to a will changing the original provisions

Coffin-1. A box into which a dead person is put to be buried2. Casket3. The case in which a corpse is buriedSyn: casket, pine box, catafalque, sarcophagus, pall, *wooden overcoat,(Origin- French/Latin/Greek)“An ornamental box…which no one cares to open” (Elbert Hubbard)

Columbarium-1. Structure or building designed for the housing of urns of cremated remains, in niches

Committal-1. To give over to, carry over, transfer, hand over for safe keeping2. The act or process of entrusting or consigning for safekeeping

Contest-1. Any legal challenge to or question of the validity of a will

Corpse-1. The dead body of a human being2. A dead body, usually of a human being3. (Origin- French/Latin)Syn: body, cadaver, *stiff, carcass, remains, bones, the deceased, ashes“A human been” – (Kay Goodman)“Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding …yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition”- (Ben Franklin)

Cremation-1. A regulated process using intense heat in a chamber to burn human remains. Typically taking 2 to 4 hours

Crematory-1. Incinerator; Crematorium2. A furnace for cremating dead bodies3. A building that has a furnace for cremating4. A place for cremating dead bodies

Crypt-1. Underground vaults2. An underground room or vault. The crypt beneath the main floor of a church was formerly often used as a burial place3. A secret recess or vault; especially, one used, as in the catacombs, for interment4. A vault under some churches, used as a chapel, cemetery, etc.5. Any chamber that holds a casket and human remains6. An individual chamber in a mausoleum(Origin- Latin/Greek)Syn: tomb, vault, chamber, mausoleum, grave, catacomb, sepulcher

Cubiculum-1. Underground vaults2. Archaeology- A burial chamber, as in catacomb3. A burial chamber with recesses in the walls for dead bodies, as in the Roman catacombs (Origin- Latin)